The Rogue Demigod
by giantsavour
Summary: Thirty years after The Heroes of Olympus series. A new batch of half-bloods live in Camp Half-Blood, ready to face the dangers of being a demigod. One group in particular have to deal with the dangers of not only monsters, but a rogue demigod that is trying to capture other demigods. When they are given a quest to find the truth, will they be able to keep each other alive?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: My first Percy Jackson fanfic. A few characters that we know and love will show up or be mentioned but this story is about a different group. Basically, the main characters are based off of friends of mine. So if they seem a little odd, that is why.**

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My life sucks. Even by demigod standards. Yeah, demigods, as in part human part selfish god. It's the god part that makes my life suck in the first place. I mean sure, there are other demigods that do have it worse. Like the famous ones in the stories; Achilles, Hercules, Percy Jackson. Those guys.

But still, I don't exactly have it easy. I'm the daughter of Hades, one of the big three, so I have a stronger aura than most. Meaning I attract more things that would love a taste of me. But unlike most demigods, or half-blood, I don't have any parents at all.

I used to. I used to have a mother that loved me and a stepfather that cared for both of us. Then the monsters attacked.

My mother died. You'd think that my caring stepfather would take it upon himself to comfort the poor daughter right? The whole 'death brings the living closer' kind of thing?

Wrong. He instead turned to anger. He blamed me for my mother's death. Said that her biggest mistake in life was having me. That he had loved her and I was nothing but a curse. And then he would beat me. My caring stepfather became my abusive guardian.

I was seven years old.

A year later, he kicked me out. Told me I looked too much like my mother and it hurt him to even look at me. So I was kicked to the curb without even a glance back.

To my great surprise, a couple of days later, a sign came. A messenger from my father told me about a camp for half-bloods like me. She told me it was near Long Island. Which was next to no help whatsoever. I lived in Canada. All I knew was that I needed to make an incredibly long journey all the way to another country to a place that I had no idea where it was without getting killed. At eight.

I didn't even believe that I was a half-blood at first. But it wasn't like I had a whole lot of options for places to go, so I made Camp Half-Blood my destination. After a few months of getting chased my monsters and fighting bloody battles, I change my mind about the demigod thing.

One very long and eventful story later, I arrived in almost one piece. I was one of the youngest campers there. The place was packed with campers. At first, camp actually felt like home.

Then I discovered who my father was, and that just ruined it for me. Hades. Lord of the dead. Ever since the second titan war, only thirty years ago, children of Hades were welcomed at camp and we have our own cabin. But that didn't really change everyone's opinions about us. Only two children have been born since the war, and the other left camp after less than a year. We still don't know what happened to him. Got killed, probably.

So I was pegged as a freak. In a place where training to kill monsters is the norm.

So yeah. Crappy life. Things got a bit better. By the time I was twelve, people kind of warmed up to me. Having been at camp longer than almost anyone, I became kind of a councilor when I was thirteen. And I have friends.

Of course, I manage to find the weirdest group of half-bloods in the world. There's Mattias. He's super annoying and loves nothing more than to drive me insane. He's the son of Hermes. It's a surprise to no one that his father is the prankster god. I only see him during the summer though because he goes home to take care of his mom during the year. He first came when we were nine, the year after I came.

Then there are the twins. Daughters of Ares. Both of them are tall and strong. They aren't jerks like most Ares kids though. Well, at least not all of the time. Devin can be a little nasty but mostly just to people that are rude to her. Lexis is actually pretty nice, despite who her dad is, but she can get vicious when someone threatens her friends, or herself, or her hair. Hers is black and falls past her shoulders, whereas Devin's is cut short.

They both came when they were eleven. Devin became my friend quickly, maybe just to prove to everyone else that she wasn't scared of me. Actually, that's probably the reason. Lexis didn't warm to me so quickly, and instead became friends with Aisha.

Aisha is quiet, even more than me, and I don't talk much when I'm not around my friends. She's the daughter of Zeus. I like to joke that it makes sense her father rules the skies because her head seems to always be in the clouds. Still, that's part of the reason why we all love her. And last year, we girls kind of formed our odd group of friends.

Having been at camp for six years, I'd been in danger before. Heck, I'd even done two quests. One of them was really dangerous. Some stupid thing my father got me to do. Retrieve this weapon from the Underworld and whatnot. Difficult, but not original. Percy Jackson had done it. But still, even just entering the Underworld is hard without dying. So I had my fair share of danger on that quest.

Even with my background of danger, all my battle training, my powers from my father, none of that was enough when the world was almost destroyed.

I guess it began with the flying bull…

**A/N: Good? Bad? You should leave this as a wattpad story that just your said friends read? Let me know!**


	2. Chapter 2

Mana  
********

As anyone can probably guess, I've seen some seriously weird things in my life. Like, _really _weird things. I've seen, men making out with girls that have horns, sea monsters snatch pegasi right out of the sky and once even a Cyclops get stuck in a pink shirt. So when I say that something took me by surprise, something must have been seriously wrong.

But I can honestly say that until that fateful July day, I had never before seen two girls fly ungracefully into the camp borders on a flaming bull.

When I say fly, I mean flying head over heels, screaming their heads off and flailing their arms and legs. That kind of fly.

I was just casually chatting with Aisha. That day I was wearing a black tee-shirt that said "run, zombies are coming" and a pair of black jeans with my combat boots. My celestial bronze sword was strapped to my waist. Aisha was telling me about how stupid hot dogs were because they weren't made of actual dog, when we heard two screams coming from the sky. All the campers ran over to see who it was.

They would have squished me flat had Aisha not yelled at me to move. When you're a demigod, you learn to just listen to the warnings and act right away before asking questions. So I dove to the side as a flaming bull with two girls on its back flew by me.

The bull's landing was terrible. I could immediately tell that it was dead. But the girls….

After a few horrible seconds of everyone crowding around the bull, hoping that the girls were alright, a head popped up from underneath the bull.

"Whew." She looked right at me. "Word of advice? Don't ever tick off a child of Hecate. It will not end well for you."

The second girl let out a moan as she sat up. She glared at the first girl. "As soon as I'm sure I haven't broken any bones, I'm going to kill you."

She too looked at me. "Here's another word of advice; don't ever travel with a child of Poseidon. They only ever bring bad luck. Plus if their name is Glynn, they are an absolute menace."

"Alright," I butted in. "I'm so fortunate that you two are both philosophers and are able to tell me the great secrets and tools of life. But how about we cut through all that crap before I fall asleep. So who are you? And what the heck happened?"

The second girl let out an annoyed sigh. "I'm JJ. This weirdo beside me is Glynn. Glynn here is the daughter of Poseidon. I'm the daughter of Aphrodite, but if you call me prissy or anything, I _will_ kill you. We, meaning her, managed to make a child of Hecate very angry with us and we suddenly were getting chased by a bull."

"Yeah, and then big mouth over here decided to taunt them, so those bulls were enchanted to became flying bulls," Glynn added.

"And then as we were getting shot into the air by the bulls, Zeus got mad that Glynn was in his territory, so he blasted the bull we were hanging onto so hard, it caught fire and shot across the sky with us still hanging to it. Hence why we are here in the first place."

Silence. For a long time. But really, how exactly is one supposed to react to a story like that?

Finally, Glynn got annoyed with the silent. "Ok people, you're all demigods, right? This is Camp Half-Blood, is it not? So do something to get this bull off of us!"

Most people still just stared, but the twins, Mattias and I snapped out of our trances. It took a lot of muscle (probably why they couldn't lift it off themselves. Neither of them looked very strong, though JJ certainly didn't look weak either) but with the four of us, we managed to roll the bull off of them. They both shakily stood up.

"We need to speak to Chiron, the camp director," Glynn announced.

I stepped forward, mostly because everyone else had stepped back. "Sorry, he's gone right now. Something to do with the party ponies causing problems at Camp Jupiter? Anyway, he won't be back for about a week."

JJ stared at me. "You're kidding! This is urgent!"

Devin spoke up. "The party ponies causing mayhem in Camp Jupiter is urgent. You can wait."

"But this could be life and death!"

"So could rampaging party ponies," Mattias pointed out. He would know. We both would. We'd dealt with the crazy centaur group called the party ponies before, on the quest we had done a few years ago. Everyone else nodded, not from experience, but from common sense.

Looks like talking would be up to me, seeing as how we had easily drifted from life and death situation to party ponies. "Alright, alright, they get it. Don't get in the way of a drunk party pony." I pointed at them. "You two, follow me. We can discuss what happened in the Big House. Everyone else, back to your activities. I'll call for a meeting if need be."

And just like that, the place cleared out. One of the perks of being able to make the undead obey your will is that it makes the living obey pretty well too.

Devin, Lexis, Mattias and Aisha stayed behind. I probably could have gotten them to leave too, but I didn't bother trying. It was nice to have a little support anyways. I beckoned the two new girls to follow me and lead everyone to the Big House.

When we arrived, I turned to Mattias. "Go to the caves and find Rachel. Tell her what happened and get her over here."

"You really think this problem requires an oracle?"

"Yes."

Naturally, he looked like he was going to protest, but I gave him my best death glare (which believe me, no one can do a death glare like a child of Hades) and he surrendered.

"Come inside. You can tell me of this life-and-death problem of yours."

We all walked in and made ourselves comfortable, even the new girls. They looked at the other three girls, almost a bit afraid, but I ignored that and gestured for them to begin.

Glynn got right to the point. "We're being hunted. At least, one of us is."

JJ smacked Glynn in the head. "Don't tell them that! We have to wait until we speak to Chiron!" She looked at us suspiciously.

I didn't have time for that. "Look, you have trust issues. You're half-bloods. I get it. But Chiron isn't here right now and as I've been here longer than just about any camper, so while he's gone, I'm in charge. So tell me what is going on."

"Don't you have a god here? Dionysius or something?" Glynn asked.

Lex laughed. "Dude, get with the times. Dionysius was allowed back in Olympus about twenty years ago. No gods here."

"Trust a bunch of random half-bloods. Who are those three?" JJ asked me.

"Friends of mine. That's Devin and Lexis, children of Ares. Aisha is a child of Zeus. We're all half-bloods here. You can trust everyone at camp." I thought for a second. "Well, you can trust everyone with something like your life here. Not with your money."

"Speaking of which, Mana, you owe me five bucks," Aisha added.

"Back to the point!" I cut her off. "Tell us why you're hunted."

JJ sighed and gestured for Glynn to continue. "We have been friends for a few years. Met through school and stuff. Anyway, a few months ago, JJ's soul mate informed us that we were half-bloods and that he was actually half goat. That kind of put a snare in their relationship."

"Glynn!" JJ yelled.

With a smirk, Glynn continued, "Anyway, after they got over their love issues, he told us that he would take us to a place that is safe for us."

"Camp Half-Blood," Lexis said.

She nodded. "But then while we were on the road, we got claimed, and we found out that I was a child of one of the Big Three."

"Monsters galore," I said, understanding where she was coming from.

"Yeah, so that meant major attacks from every monster within a five mile radius. But the monsters weren't our biggest problem," JJ added.

"Some crazy psycho was sending certain creatures to come grab us. We aren't sure what and we don't know who. But that guy seriously wanted one of us badly."

"We were totally surrounded and my boyfriend Liam…" JJ had to stop to take a breath. I nodded. She didn't really need to explain. But she did anyway. "He told us to run and said he would hold them off. Gods, I didn't want to leave, but we had no choice."

"We haven't heard from him since. We were trying to find him for weeks, but that's when we ran into a son of Hecate. We didn't get along very well."

"Understatement. But you guys know the rest," JJ finished.

I rubbed my temples. "I'm sorry, really. That's rough. But I don't see how that's a big life or death situation. You're at camp so whatever was hunting you can't reach you here."

"No, you don't understand. It wasn't a monster that was hunting us. It was a demigod," JJ said.

That made all of us freeze. "What?" Devin asked. She looked at JJ like she had grown a third eye.

"Some demigod was sending monsters after us. Can you believe it? One of the monsters said that he needed 'three', whatever that means," Glynn explained.

"Three demigods?" Aisha guessed.

"How did you get a monster to talk?" I asked.

JJ shrugged. "I can be very persuasive. Liam called it charm speak or something."

"You can charm speak?" Aisha asked.

"That's what she just said," I snapped testily. She shrunk away. I stood up. "Alright, so let me get this straight; some crazy demigod is working with monsters and is trying to abduct one or both of you and may be trying to abduct other demigods. But maybe not." I shook my head. "Gods, why does everything have to be so complicated?"

"Are you a child of Zeus? Or Athena?" Glynn asked. I looked at her weird.

"Um, that's a bit random. No and no. Why?"

"Just the others seem to listen to you, and a child of Zeus or Athena would probably be the one to take charge."

I snorted. "Listen to me? The only reason they haven't interrupted or done something annoying is because your story is odd even by demigod standards. Just wait until they come out of their shock."

"Ok, then who are you?" JJ asked.

"Mana. Lex, you take JJ to the Aphrodite cabin. Don't give me that look. I didn't say you had to _stay._ Aisha, you take Glynn to the Poseidon cabin."

"What about me?" Devin asked.

"Like I'd trust you with the newbies. We want them to survive at least one week here. Join your cabin I guess. I need to stay here and talk to Rachel."

Glynn interrupted. "What about your parent? Who's your mom or dad?"

I glared. "Both my parents are in the Underworld," I replied coldly. It took JJ a moment to process. I could tell because after a few seconds, her eyes grew wide. Glynn didn't get it at all. I could tell because she announced, "What? That doesn't make sense. Your godly parents can't die…"

"She's a child of Hades, idiot," Devin said, rolling her eyes.

"Oooooooh," she said. She laughed a bit. "I get it. Wait…what?" Once she had gotten over her pride about understanding what I meant after she was told twice, she gave me an odd look. "Ouch."

Well. Not the usual reaction but I'll take that over the fear I usually get. Besides, I know now that usually Glynn's too oblivious to be afraid of things that everyone else is.

Lexis clapped her hands loudly. "Ok! Let's go get you two settled in, shall we?"

I watched the four leave with Devin. When they had gone, she looked at me. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I'm thinking that Chiron can't get back soon enough," I grumbled.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So, since this is a wattpad story that I'm just putting up here, I have quite a few pre-written chapters. Until I run out, I'm going to try posting every Monday. After that, sorry, my consistency of updating is terrible. **

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JJ  
********

There were quite a few emotions going through my head. I was worried about the situation I found myself in, angry and Glynn for being incapable of keeping her mouth shut, but mostly I was worried about Liam. We'd had a few happy months together before he dropped the bomb on us about the whole half-blood thing.

Then he had to go and be a stupid hero and sacrifice himself for Glynn and me. The nerve of him. If he was still alive, I was going to kill him. If he was dead, I was going to talk to that girl Mana and see if she could help me get into the underworld so I could kill him twice. Do satyrs go to the underworld when they die? I'm not sure. I'm new to this.

Speaking of Mana, I really didn't know what to make of everyone. As she walked me to the Aphrodite cabin (sorry, the Aphrodite/Venus cabin), I could tell that I liked Lexis. She was fairly chatty, telling me all about the cool things there were at Camp Half-Blood. Her long black hair was loose and it was comical seeing her have to push the hair out of her face every few seconds due to the wind.

The other child of Ares, Devin, I didn't think I liked. She seemed kind of rude to me, and that wasn't what I needed at that moment. The way she had looked at me and Glynn like she was sizing us up? It made me feel almost uncomfortable.

The girl with the really long dark brown hair, her I wasn't sure of. She hadn't spoken much in the Big House, but she hadn't looked at me like I was fresh meat either. I knew Glynn had a problem with children of Zeus, but she had seemed fairly harmless to me.

Mana, I really didn't know what to make of. She was guarded, that much was obvious. I understood how that felt. She had blonde hair, which seemed a bit odd for a child of Hades, but she was really pale, and she wore all black. There were dark circles under her piercing blue eyes. Another trait that seemed odd for a Hades kid. Clearly she was an authority figure in the camp, despite being probably my age, but that didn't make me like her any more.

Lexis walked me right up to the cabin, but she refused to go inside with me. Truthfully, I was grateful for her coming that far. I'm not stupid; I know how other demigods view Aphrodite's kids, especially children of Ares. But she hadn't treated me like I was some vain, self-centered girly-girl, so that was unexpectedly pleasant.

I can't say the same for my cabin mates. Some of them smiled at me when I walked in, but most didn't even glance up from their books, food or mirrors. Needless to say, I didn't stick around long in there. As soon as I finished throwing my stuff on my bed (which thanks to the flying trip on the bull, I really didn't have much stuff) I went to go find Glynn. As annoying as she can be, we've been best friends since we were kids, and she was the only person I really knew.

It wasn't difficult to find the Poseidon/Neptune cabin. It was a bit more difficult to get Glynn to leave. There were four kids inside, including Glynn, so their cabin had a lot more space than mine. I thought that was seriously unfair.

Once I'd convinced her to walk with me, we headed down towards the lake. "Well?" I finally asked. "What do you think of everyone?"

She thought for a second. "Not sure," she admitted. "I don't like the twins. The looked at me like they expected me to do a flip. I can't even do a summersault!" It took her a second to get back on track. "Where was I? Oh, right. Aisha, that's the daughter of Zeus, she seems pretty nice. We talked a bit on the way to my cabin."

"Yeah, Lexis seemed pretty nice too." I thought second. "What about Mana?"

"The Hades kid? She looks like a corpse."

"Oh come on. I don't think she's _that _bad."

"I think people that live in the North Pole have more colour in their skin than she does. I've seen homeless people fatter than her. And she looks like she hasn't slept for days. Admit it; she looks creepy."

Personally, I thought that was a bit harsh, but she wasn't too far off. "Fine. Creepy. But I mean, other than what she looks like. Do you trust her? Do you trust _them_?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, I'd say so. It seems like they would be willing to help, but I don't think their idea of help is for the faint of heart."

"What makes you say that?"

"That boy that Mana was talking to? The one that helped get the bull off of us? I saw him literally jumping from branch to branch up in the trees. These people are crazy athletic."

"Meaning you're in trouble."

"Hey! I can _swim_!"

"Bravo. The child of Poseidon can swim."

She glared at me before continuing, "Anyway, I'd say we can trust them. I mean, I trust Aisha. You seem to like Lexis. That's at least two of them."

"I guess." I wouldn't look her in the eyes.

"You're thinking about Liam again, aren't you?" Glynn asked.

Nodding, I snapped my gaze back to her. "Never mind. He's gone now. Nothing we can do about it. Unless…"

"Unless what?"

"Nothing. We can't do anything until Chiron gets back."

This whole conversation felt odd. We aren't usually so serious, but I guess after everything that had happened that day…no scratch that, everything that had happen that _month,_ it was hard to keep our spirits light.

Glynn managed a smile. "Well, since the person I usually annoy is unavailable right now, how about we see if there's a camper that I can have fun annoying?"

I rolled my eyes, but didn't protest as Glynn dragged me back towards the cabins.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Sorry, I know, I'm late. I don't really have an excuse. Um, I was stressed about upcoming exams and it slipped my mind until now? Best I can do. Hopefully I'll remember next Monday. Anyway, onto the next chapter!**

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Mana  
********

"What do you mean 'a demigod attacked them'?" Rachel pestered.

"How many ways can you take that? There really is only one meaning to the phrase 'a demigod attacked them'," I shot back. Rachel is an older woman, almost in her fifties, with fiery red hair. She's our oracle, has been since before we were all born. Apparently she became the oracle after the second titan war was over.

"Did they give any details on this attack?"

"No, they don't know. Or if they do, they aren't saying. All they said is that the monsters told them they were being sent by a demigod."

"And the monsters just, what, decided to inform them for this to try to prevent themselves from being killed?"

"Of course not. JJ can charm speak."

Her eyes widened a bit. "Wow. We haven't had a charm speaker since…"

"Since Piper Mclean, I know. But if she _is _a charm speaker, than the monsters would tell her anything she asked them to tell her. They aren't strong enough to resist unless they are powerful."

"I know how charm speak works, Mana."

Sometimes talking to Rachel is like pulling teeth, only pulling teeth is quicker.

She rubbed her temples. "I'm sorry. This is just frustrating. But I shouldn't take it out on you. By the way, Mattias wants you to see him when you're done talking to me."

"Well am I done?"

"Yeah. Go ahead."

I walked out without a second glance back. Gods, this was annoying. I _really _wanted to shadow travel, maybe to Florida, just to get away for a while. But Chiron had made me promise not to do that, at least not without talking to him first. Honestly, _one time _I ended up stranded in Australia for two weeks. It was an accident!

At that moment, I wasn't really in the mood to talk to anyone at all, but I never seem to ever _actually_ get mad at Mattias, and he usually can make me smile, so I went to go find him.

As expected, he was on the parkour bridges in the trees. "I hear you wanted to see me," I yelled.

He glanced down. "About time. What, were you strangling Rachel in there?"

"No. Came close, but no."

Grinning, he swooped down and landed in front of me. "To the forest?" he suggested. We always go there when we want to talk. They can be dangerous, but danger isn't anything new.

"Lead the way."

We walked past all the campers that were busy doing their scheduled activities. I'm the only one in my cabin, so I can pick my activities. Mattias probably should have been with his cabin but he's never really been a 'follow the rules' type.

When we reached the trees, he got straight to the point. "You've been having nightmares again, haven't you?"

Gods it's annoying when he does that. "Why do you say that?"

"I can tell."

"Cannot."

"Can so."

Glaring, I walked in front of him. Any leaves in my way, I slashed them with my bronze sword.

"What have you been dreaming about?"

"Nothing of any importance. Just forget it. Let's see if we can kill something."

"Tell me first. Then you can release all your anger on having to talk to me on some poor monster. Deal?"

I glared at him. "Deal? Do I look like I'm six?"

"No, you only act like it."

Pulling teeth is probably more pleasant than talking to Mattias sometimes. "Fine. Yes, I've been having nightmares. I'm a half-blood. Is that so surprising?"

"Normally nightmares don't affect you.'

"Well, a person can only handle so much. Anyways, I haven't had them for a few nights, so it's fine."

"Have you slept at all those few nights?" He knows that I never get enough sleep at night, and many nights I don't bother going to sleep at all. I didn't answer him.

He sighed. "Mana, what in Zeus's name are you dreaming about? Devin tells me you snapped at Aisha. I've never seen you do that before. _Tell me."_

"I don't even really know! I can never really remember it after I wake up. All I remember is some room with a bunch of machines in it. But whenever I close my eyes, I open them feeling terrified and I don't know why!" I shouted.

After taking a deep breath to calm myself, I turned and faced him. "That's not normal is it?"

"No, it's not. But nothing about you is normal, so why are you surprised?"

I eyed him suspiciously. "Was that a compliment?"

"Nope."

"Thought not. I can be _normal._"

He stared at me.

"When I feel like it," I said a bit quieter.

"Sure. Whatever you want to believe. But about those dreams, you can tell Chiron about them when he get back. He's seen it all, I'm sure he'll know how to help you."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Come on. Let's head back. I'm sure the newbies have tons of questions, and I need to make sure that they don't understand any of the answers you give them."

"If the twins don't beat you to that."

He grabbed my wrist and started pulling me back. "Hey, I don't even get to kill anything?" I whined.

"Maybe if you're really good, I'll summon something for you to kill after dinner," he mocked. I stuck my tongue out and yanked my wrist away.

"Fine. Race you!" I took off. Luckily for me, I'm a fast runner. Unluckily for me, Mattias is faster. He won that race. Of course, the race was cut short when he slammed into the girl Glynn, knocking both of them to the ground.

I couldn't help myself; I snorted and started laughing _hard. _The sight of Mattias lying flat on a very surprised looking Glynn was the funniest sight I had seen in a while.

JJ looked at me strange. I knew she thought it was weird to see me laughing. Most people assume children of Hades are all depressing and crap. Thanks, Nico de Angelo, for giving all children of Hades that aura. No, I have my moments, and though I'm fairly quiet around strangers, but I'm far from depressed.

"Owwwww," Glynn groaned. "Get off!"

Mattias tried to push himself off of her, but ended up crunching her arm, making her complain louder. Even JJ was laughing by then.

"Get a room you two," I said. Mattias and Glynn both glared at me. After a few more seconds of struggling, they managed to get to your feet.

"You still owe me a buck," he reminded me. That's our fee for any bet. Most of our bets I win, but it doesn't really matter because usually he steals the money back anyways, so it's not like I make a profit off it or anything. If I did, I'd be rich.

"Shut up." I turned to the girls. "Did you two get settled in?"

JJ nodded. "Yeah. Although the Aphrodite kids seem kind of stuck up."

I shrugged. "Most of them are. Ignore them. Some of them are nice. You just have to look harder to find those people."

"I guess."

"Come on, it's almost dinner and I'm starving," Mattias said.

"You're always starving."

"Does that statement have a point to it?"

I shoved him then turned to the girls. "Go join your cabins. They'll lead you to the mess hall."

They nodded and walked towards the cabins. I turned to Mattias. "Same with you. You're a councilor, it's _your _job to lead the Hermes/Mercury cabin to dinner."

"Same with activities but I never do that either."

"I'm well aware." It's strange to think that thirty years ago, we wouldn't have been some of the oldest at camp. Then after the war against the giants, the unspoken rule happened; after fifteen or sixteen, most demigods go to Camp Jupiter to join the legion. After they serve, they retire and live in New Rome. So now, being fourteen is being a senior. And being at camp for six years like me? That's longer than some people spend for their entire time here and I still have at least one more year left, probably two.

"Fine. I'll see you there." He dashed off. I turned and headed straight to the mess hall. With no fellow cabin mates, I didn't really have a reason to the Hades/Pluto cabin. Other than the fact that it looks awesome in there. Once, it looked like a place for vampires. Then our first Hades kid actually stayed there (Nico de Angelo) and he changed it up. Thank the gods for that. Honestly, being a kid of Hades is _not_ the same as being a vampire.

The mess hall was empty, as expected. I sat at my table and carved into the wood with my blade. I'm no artist (meaning I couldn't draw anything well to save a life), but I am ADHD, so I needed to do something while I waited.

Then I heard a noise behind me. I turned just in time to see a phoenix diving towards me. With a yelp, I jumped out of the way. Mostly, at least. Its claws reached out and grazed my cheek as it flew by me.

_'__What the underworld?'_

I ignored the fiery pain in my cheek and drew my sword. What I really wanted was my bow, because I have better aim than some Apollo kids. But that was in my cabin, and I'm still fairly advanced with a blade.

One of the harpies stopped to watch. I waved my sword at her. "Go! Get Devin or Mattias!"

She screeched and flew off, hopefully to do what I said. The phoenix came at me again, and I swung my sword as it got close. A strike like that would have killed most monsters, but not this one. My sword just bounced off of it. Something else needed to kill a phoenix.

I racked my brain. Myths and legends were one of my strong suits. '_Come on, how do you kill a phoenix?'_ Then it hit me. Fire. I needed fire.

Across the hall was where the flames were, sitting in the columns to light up the hall. But right in between me and my required weapon was a very angry bird.

Cursing (in ancient Greek of course. That's how the cool kids do it), I dropped my sword and braced myself to run. I only had one shot at this. If I wasn't quick enough, I would be screwed.

The bird screeched and dived towards me. I ignored my instincts that were telling me to run and held myself in place. It came closer with every millisecond. I waited until the last possible moment before dropping to the ground in a ball and rolling underneath the phoenix. Its forward momentum caused it to continue flying forwards, so I took that opportunity and scrambled to my feet. I took off running towards the fire.

"Mana!" I heard a voice yell. I looked up. Mattias was running towards me, along with a bunch of other campers. Devin and Lex were in that pack. Both drew their swords and ran to help.

"Matt, a bow!" I shouted. He looked confused for a second before realization dawned on him. While Devin and Lex sliced and hacked at the phoenix, trying to keep it distracted and away from me, Mattias snatched a bow off of a random Apollo kid's back, along with the quiver of arrows. He ran towards me, ducking under the fiery bird and handed me his prizes.

"What can kill it?" he asked. He's not as good with myths as I am.

"Fire," I said. I stuck on of the arrows into the flames and waited until it caught fire. I took aim. "Devin! Lex! Hit the deck!"

They both dove to the ground and I let my arrow fly. It struck the phoenix right in the chest and the thing exploded, turning into ash.

Both of the twins and I were breathing heavily. The pain in my cheek was intense and blurring my vision. Since Phoenix's are fire birds, the stupid wound was going to burn worse than most injuries.

Then a voice rang out, "Collect the ashes!"

We looked up to see Aisha, Glynn and JJ standing at the front of the pack. Glynn was walking towards us.

She explained, "You need to collect the ashes and spread them. Fire kills a phoenix, but it can reform from its ashes.

I had no idea how she knew that, nor did I care. That fact sounded familiar. I barked at the other campers to help us, and soon the ashes were blown away by the wind, buried in the earth or washed away in the water.

Until that moment, I hadn't realized how tired I was. Then I started to sway I guess, because suddenly Mattias had caught me from hitting the ground. I quickly shoved him away.

"Alright, excitement is over. Everyone go to your tables and eat up. Council meeting as soon as dinner is over."

I looked directly at JJ and Glynn. "And you two. The two of you are coming as well."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Nothing much to say really. I'm on time this week! That's something!**

**Dancer4Eternity: I wasn't actually planning on having the old demigods in this story but that's not a bad idea. It won't be in their perspectives if I do though. Sorry. This story is something that I'm writing on wattpad for my friends actually and they haven't read the books (they are terrible human beings) so I also have to make sure it's something that they would like. So I'll just leave it at a maybe later. Hope you understand!**

Glynn  
********

Once I'd gotten over my shock, I was excited for the meeting. But it took me all of dinner to get over that shock.

The other campers recovered fairly quickly, though they would occasionally glance over to the Hades table. Aisha had explained to me that campers weren't allowed to sit at other tables, but I guess seniors didn't listen to that rule. Or maybe getting nearly killed by a giant killer bird allowed exceptions. I wasn't sure which, but the twins and the Hermes kid were sitting with Mana.

I still couldn't quite believe what happened. One minute I'm following my cabin leader, Raphael, the next we're running alongside the other cabins to see the commotion. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I'd never seen a real phoenix before. They aren't as small as Dumbledore's bird in Harry Potter, I can tell you that. It was much, much larger, and seeing one demigod fight it with a sword by herself was a bit hard to process.

If I'm being honest, she was impressive. We were running towards her, so my view was from a distance, but I could tell that she was skilled with a blade. Heck, I can barely _lift _a sword, let alone fight with one. But as soon as I snapped out of my awe, I started yelling in my head.

_'__Fire, you idiot. A sword isn't going to do it. You need fire!' _JJ says I'm really bad with anything that isn't a fact in a textbook. She's probably right. Fighting? I'm part of the reason we lost Liam. I couldn't defend myself. But when it comes to the legends and the language, I'm smarter than almost anyone.

It seemed that Mana was good with legends too, because after a moment, she changed her tactics. Standing in the way like that was both brave and stupid. But it worked, and she rolled under making a be-line for the flames.

Then Hermes boy stole a bow for her, she shot a flaming arrow (which is completely unfair. Not only is she a child of the big three, but she can use both swords _and_ bows? I can barely use my dagger!) and we all lived happily ever after. Blah, blah, blah. Everyone knows I was the real hero. Had it not been for me, that phoenix would have reformed and killed us all.

Now the mess hall was, well, a mess. Phoenix's are fire birds, so nearly every table was scorched. Not mine though. I guess property of Poseidon tables are difficult to burn.

The Hades table was almost black it was scorched so badly, but I guess a black table suits the cabin. Do all death kids dress like gangsters?

The four at said table were in a deep conversation. Had the circumstances been different, I might have gone over to them and asked "Why so serious?" But I wasn't _that _dumb, no matter what JJ says. Every kid there had a sword. Messing with them at a moment like that was not on my to-do list, nor would it ever be. Maybe.

Now council meetings, that sounded fun. Actually, scratch that. It _sounded _really boring but considering she called it just after a near death by phoenix, I doubted that we would all be sitting there discussing politics.

What I wasn't sure about was why JJ and I were going. Neither of us were leaders. We hadn't even been here for a full day yet! But I was grateful to be going. Sitting in the dark while others discuss the important stuff did not seem appealing to me.

Dinner went by fast. I talked with JJ and Aisha for a bit, then before I knew it, I was back in my cabin getting ordered by Raphael to hurry up. I quickly jumped up and followed him out the door towards the Big House.

There were dozens of campers. According to JJ, who had been told by Lex, after the second titan war, Percy Jackson made the Olympians agree to have cabins for the minor gods. Then Jason Grace went back and forth between camps for years building even more after the war against the giants. So there were tons of cabins now. Most minor gods got a monument instead of a cabin, but there were still probably twenty to thirty cabins.

All the talk about previous wars gave me a headache. How many wars did this place have within a year? Plus the name Percy Jackson popped up everywhere. I asked Devin, and she said he was still alive, living in New Rome or whatever with his wife Annabeth. New Rome, a place for demigods to go to college, get jobs, live normal lives. Sounded boring. Safety is overrated.

Mana was the last one to enter. Better late than never. She had stitches in her cheek from where the phoenix claws scratched her. The Hermes kid was right beside her.

"Alright, calm down everyone. Take a seat. We have some serious stuff to discuss."

"Yeah, try not to tick her off," the Hermes guy piped up. "She already almost killed me with a skeleton in the med bay."

"Not on _purpose,_" she said. "Although that may change. So, to business."

She looked at every person in turn. Dang, that girl could give a _really _scary death stare when she wanted to.

"Today," she began, "has been abnormal, even for us. First two demigods fall from the sky and tell me that they are being hunted by another demigod." A collective gasp went up from the other councilors, but Mana ignored them. "Then a phoenix attacks me in a place where monsters can't enter. This leads me to one conclusion; we have a traitor in our midst."

The temperature felt like it dropped. Seeing as how a bunch of people had magical powers, it probably did.

A boy from Athena table stood. "Maybe not."

"What do you mean? Do you have a theory, Duncan?" she asked.

He nodded. "You said a demigod was attacking Glynn and JJ? If they found out that the girls are here, a demigod could enter the borders. Maybe they entered and summoned the phoenix from the inside."

She thought for a second. "You could be right. Either way, we need to find out who is doing this. Which we can't do from here. So we need a quest then."

"Seriously?" a Venus girl asked. "We haven't had a quest like that since…"

"I'm aware, Jaden. I was on that quest," Mana butted in.

"A quest like what?" I asked.

Lexis explained, "People get quests often, usually ones from their parents. Those are usually repeats of quests other demigods have done in the past. An original quest is strange."

"What was the last quest about?" JJ asked.

Mattias and Mana glanced at each other. "That's a story for another time," Mattias said,

"Back to the point. Last time, we had an exception. Only two people went. However, this quest will follow the normal rules unless Rachel's prophecy says otherwise. That means three."

"I'm going," JJ announced, standing. "Same with Glynn. This started with us. We need to go."

"That's why I brought the two of you here. I know it has to be you. As well as me. I got attacked. Out of a camp full of demigods, it targeted me. I'm a part of this for whatever reason," Mana agreed.

As much as I wanted to figure this out, getting handed the quest didn't exactly make me happy. Especially with creepy Hades kids. Poseidon and Hades? Not as bad as Poseidon and Zeus but still. Rivalries go way back.

"Whoa, wait. First of all, no way can you guys go now. Chiron needs to approve and the newbies haven't had any training. Plus, didn't you say that the demigod wanted three? Isn't it a bad idea to send three half-bloods to find this dude a bad idea?"

"It's how quests work, Mattias. You know this. Besides, I wasn't planning on leaving tonight. We wait until Chiron gets back. In the meantime, Glynn and JJ need to train. Taking two rookies is going to be difficult enough. I want to know your strengths and weaknesses before I'm to take the two of you on a quest," Mana insisted.

"Hey, we can handle ourselves," JJ snapped.

To my surprise, that made Mana grin. "Seems like bravery is a trait you have. Good. You're going to need it."

With that, she dismissed the council, making everyone go back to their cabins with thoughts and worries in our heads.


	6. Chapter 6

Devin  
********

_'__No way' _I thought as I swung my sword at another practice dummy. There was no way in the Underworld that I was going to let Mana go on the quest. Not with two rookies that I wasn't even sure we could trust. Seeing them in training didn't help. The Aphrodite kid was quick with a dagger but not very strong with it. The Poseidon kid almost dropped her dagger on her foot.

Mana had done her best to get them prepared. I was in charge of teaching them how to use their weapons. My sister tried to help them get muscled by wrestling and arm workouts. Mattias made them run until they dropped and Mana helped them figure out how to work their powers.

Aisha was just kind of everyone's helper. She convinced us to give the girls breaks when she thought they needed them, and she did her best to keep their spirits high. It worked for the most part. Aisha has that effect on people.

Still, I knew it wasn't enough. Mana isn't stupid, she knew it too. But she refused to back down. Stubborn girl. Lex and I tried every night to talk her out of it. I was certain Mattias was trying too. He was worried, and if Mattias gets worried about Mana, you know something is wrong.

When she wasn't helping train the girls, Mana and Mattias trained together, or she would ask me to help her. I'm a bit stronger than her but she is faster. It makes interesting fights. I also noticed her practicing with her bow a lot, even though she didn't need to. Her aim is dead on.

During the trainees rest time, I loved bothering both of them. Annoying people brings me joy.

But during all of this, I was thinking _'Mana is not going on the quest by herself.' _I didn't trust the rookies to watch her back and I certainly didn't trust the situation they were in.

If I'm being honest, I was also _dying _to go on a quest. Mana had been on two. Her first one, everyone at camp knows about. Some big quest that her and Mattias had gone on to save the world. That had been at the beginning of my second year at camp. Then last year Mana went on some quest for her father. Mattias had been on one. Tons of kids from camp had done stuff for their parents. Lex and I had prayed, yelled and cured at our father, telling him to give one or both of us a quest, but to no avail.

It was infuriating. I was one of the strongest at camp. I was one of the oldest, even older than Mana and Mattias. In fact, one thing that I found super annoying was that Mana was seen as one of the oldest even more than me, and she was the youngest in our little group.

The youngest. Another reason why she wasn't going by herself. No one was allowed to mess with my friends but me. And my other friends. Seeing that phoenix attack had freaked me out more than I like to admit. Monsters like that shouldn't be able to get into camp, and that thing had targeted Mana, no question about it. Whoever sent that after her was going to pay.

Lex would agree. I know she would. She's super protective. Maybe that's an older sibling thing. Same with Mattias. As strange as it seems, seeing the way they act around each other, he is really protective of Mana. Again, probably older sibling thing. They aren't blood related but they sure act like it.

Aisha would probably be willing to help. She isn't usually so ready to do dangerously stupid things like the rest of us, but she would want to help.

I stopped attacking dummies for a minute to catch my breath. I had been so preoccupied in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized I had destroyed half of them already. Oops.

Putting my sword away (an imperial gold sword. Mana says celestial bronze is rarer but mine looks cooler than hers) I walked towards the Ares/Mars cabin. Our cabin is one of the biggest, which is super annoying. Luckily, being a cabin leader has its perks. Both my sister and I get actual beds while a few kids sleep on the floor. Suckers. I sometimes get jealous of Aisha, Mana and Glynn. There were five Zeus/Jupiter kids, four Poseidon kids (no Romans there) and Mana was the only one in her cabin. Apparently the big three still were a bit wary on having kids. They barely have to share any of their cabin space.

Lex was fixing the decor on our doorway. It used to look sloppy, but both of us have a gift at art, so when we became cabin leaders we changed that.

"What's up?" she asked, not even bothering to look at me.

"How do you feel about going on a quest?"

That got her attention. She climbed down so that we were eye to eye. "You already know how I feel. Why? Dad appear to you in a dream or something?"

"No. I don't think we should let Mana go on that quest. Not by herself. If whoever is behind this has phoenixes up their sleeve, I don't even want to know what else they have under their control."

"She _isn't _going by herself. JJ and Glynn are going. Or did you forget the eight days of hard-core training we've put them through?"

I rolled my eyes. "Do either of them look like they could take something as bad as a phoenix? JJ can sometimes control people with her charm speak and Glynn has only just gotten to the point where she can hold a dagger and stab in the right direction. Not with any force, but not stabbing herself either."

Lex nodded. "I see your point."

"So here's what I think; we go with her. She doesn't have to know we are. But you, me, Mattias, Aisha, we go too."

"Think Mattias and Aisha will be up for it?"

"Mattias, yeah. He wouldn't let anything hurt Mana. That's his job. And Aisha seems close to all three of them. I doubt she would want to stay behind."

"Hey, you know I'm game, but there is the slight problem of actually leaving."

"Yeah, I know. Maybe Mattias has an idea. He knows this camp better than either of us."

"True. But don't…"

"…tell him that. I know."

Before either of us could say anything else, I heard shouts coming from the top of the hill, where Thalia's tree was (Long story. Basically it's the tree that sits at the entrance to Camp Half-Blood). One of the scouts was pointing. We both started running towards him. Mattias reached there first, closely followed by Mana. Glynn and JJ were a few seconds behind her, with Aisha arriving at about the same time we did.

"…back," the scout was telling Mattias.

"What? I think I missed something," Aisha said.

Mattias turned to her. "Chiron is back."

Sure enough, the centaur soon became visible. He trotted over to where the crowd was. "Greetings, half-bloods. I have returned."

"Yeah, we see that. How'd it go?" Mana asked.

"It went well. My kin were enjoying the roman wine a bit too much I'm afraid, But it was dealt with. Besides, it was nice to go there and see some of the old campers."

"Chiron, we have two new campers," Lex announced. JJ and Glynn pushed forward.

"I'm JJ."

"Glynn."

Everyone was silent for a few moments. Then Mana smacked her head and muttered, "Aphrodite and Poseidon."

"Ah. Welcome to camp. I trust Mana made you feel welcome and didn't scare you off."

"Not yet anyway. Mr. Chiron, we have important stuff to talk about," Glynn said.

JJ made a face. "Important _stuff? _Really?"

Glynn shrugged and kept her attention on Chiron.

"Of course. Always something now, isn't there? Come, we shall discuss these matters in the Big House."

"I'll come with you. Everyone else, go on with your activities," Mana said. She looked at my sister, me, Aisha and Mattias. "Everyone."

Normally I'd be mad. I would refuse to listen unless Chiron told me otherwise. But not this time. I had matters of my own to discuss.


	7. Chapter 7

Mana  
********

I was happy Chiron was back. Really, I was. He is kind of like a father to me, since mine sucked. But having him back meant that I was about to go on my third quest. With two untrained demigods. They'd worked hard all week, I know they did, but facts are facts.

Strengths? JJ was a fast learner with her dagger. She wasn't exactly skilled, she wasn't terrible either. Her charm speak was also nothing to laugh at.

On the other hand, Glynn was book smart. She knew myths almost as well as I did, maybe even more so. And she could…um…splash people with puddles. Sometimes.

Fantastic.

Chiron made himself at home as soon as we entered the Big House. "Alright. Start from the beginning."

So we did. JJ and Glynn told Chiron what they had told me; all about their journey here, about JJ's boyfriend and about the demigod that was hunting them.

Then I stepped in and told him the rest. About the quest, the training and the phoenix that attacked me in the mess hall.

"And you really think all of you are ready?" he asked me.

"…of course I do. We've trained them hard, and this doesn't seem like a problem that we can just hold off on."

Truth? I lied. Of course we weren't ready. Devin, Mattias and Lorna had all voiced their concerns about this quest. Even Alia was uneasy about having me go. But what could I do? Waiting wasn't an option and I'd done all I could to train the other two.

"Very well. JJ, this is you quest. Go to Rachel's cave to get your prophecy."

"Hey! This is my quest too. The dude could've been trying to kill me, not her. I should go too."

He sighed. "Both of you then. Mana, we need to talk."

"Later," I countered. "These two have never gotten a prophecy before, and as the most experienced one on this quest, I need to know exactly what the prophecy says."

I knew I was pushing it, but the chances of me coming back were slim as it was. I needed every bit of detail I could if I wanted to improve those chances.

"Are you trying to make me die young?" he asked, exasperated.

"You're not young, Chiron. You're like, hundreds of years old."

"Go, if you feel so compelled. But come back after and talk to me. Tell me what Rachel says. We also have some other things we need to discuss."

"Looking forward to it."

Rachel's cave is mega cool. Apollo himself set it up, so I suppose that does make sense.

Unfortunately, she wasn't in her cave so I didn't get to stay for a visit. Instead she was sitting on the beach, looking out at the water. When she saw us coming, she grinned and stood up.

"I know that face. That's the 'I just got assigned a dangerous quest and need a prophecy' face."

"Well read," I replied.

She shrugged. Then her face went pale and Rachel started swooning. I quickly caught her before she face-planted and supported her weight.

"Um, is that normal?" Glynn asked.

"No," I said, sarcastically. "This never happens. She just took one look at your face and almost died of fright."

"Hey! I resent that!"

"Maybe you do. Doesn't make it less true."

"Mana? Is there supposed to be green smoke coming out of her?" JJ asked.

Sure enough, green smoke was pouring around Rachel. Luckily, yes that was normal. She raised her head and opened her eyes. They were green. As in, her entire eye was green, not just the irises.

She opened her mouth and a voice that was definitely not Rachel's voice spoke:

_"__A demigod whose core is corrupt and dark,_

_Must be beaten by a single spark._

_But beware, for this victory comes at a cost,_

_Three children will be wounded, beaten, lost._

_Success cannot come without help from a friend,_

_And one half-blood will meet a most painful end."_

Rachel promptly went slack in my arms.

Well.

I'd heard some creepy prophecies before but that? That was terrifying.

"Anyone else feel the temperature drop?" JJ asked. Both she and Glynn had faces that were almost as pale as mine.

"We are so screwed," Glynn moaned.

"_A demigod whose core is corrupt and dark._ That must be the rogue demigod," I said.

"_Must be beaten by a single spark._ What does _that _mean? What spark?" JJ asked.

"No idea."

"_But beware, for this victory comes at a cost,_" Glynn continued. "_Three children will be wounded, beaten, lost._ Obviously the children is the cost. But who are they? And why are random kids the cost for us succeeding?"

"_Success cannot come without help from a friend._ At least someone friendly is going to help us. Probably," JJ added.

Then the worst line. "_And one half-blood will meet a most painful end. _One of us is going to die."

They both looked at me. "Thank you for that blunt statement about our demise," JJ snapped.

"You're a Hades kid. Can you tell who will die?" Glynn asked.

"What kind of stupid question is that? Even Hades himself can't predict that. Death is never certain until it happens."

"Well, what are we going to do?" JJ asked.

"You guys go pack. We leave in the morning. I'm going to talk to Chiron. After you've packed, I guess just go join your cabins."

"Wait, you don't care that one of us is going to die? That doesn't change anything?" Glynn stared at me in disbelief.

"Of course I care. But running away isn't going to help. We're demigods, our lives are supposed to suck. Maybe if we're all lucky, it'll be me that meets a painful end, eh? Now go."

Maybe I was a bit harsh. But I was really shaken up. Did I want to die? No, of course not. Then I would have to be close to my dad for the rest of eternity. Better me than them though.

I slowly walked back to the Big House. Chiron was waiting for me.

"Tell me. What was it?"

So I repeated it. His face stayed mostly neutral but his eyes flashed in fear at the last line.

"Yeah. One of us is going to die. I have a bad feeling it's me. Ever get those feelings? I also don't like the line about the children. Beating kids is just wrong." Yeah, I was rambling. That's what happens when I'm scared. Or hyper. I talk fast.

He managed to keep his composure. "Mana, I have a feeling you wanted to tell me something?"

How did he know? "It was Mattias wasn't it? He communicated with you through his eyes when you first arrived didn't he? He ratted me out. Little piece of-"

"Mana!" Chiron interrupted. "What did you want to tell me?"

I suddenly became very interested in my boots. "I've been having, um, weird dreams lately."

"Not completely uncommon. You've always been bad with nightmares. That's expected, you're a child of the Big Three, and you've known since you were young."

"Yeah, but those dreams usually just scare me. These scare and confuse me which is worse. I don't remember them, Chiron. I don't remember a single one. All I know is that something terrible happens in the dream and then I wake up, drenched in sweat, freezing and terrified. It's been happening every day for two weeks."

He bent down and held me at arm's length. I could feel him inspecting my face, taking in the dark circles under my eyes. Had it been anyone else, I would've smacked their hands away. But since it was Chiron, I stayed still. "Did you talk to any Hypnos kids?" he asked.

I shook my head. "No, no one else knows about them. Only you and Mattias."

His eyes were full of sympathy. Not pity, just sympathy. "I know you're scared."

"I'm not-"

"And I know you're going to continue to deny it and pretend that you're fine. But I want you to remember that you are not alone. You have friends with you."

This sappy stuff was strange. I never ever have heart-to-heart moments with anyone. Considering I was borderline freaking out, I would let it slide. But if he tried to hug me, that would change.

"Chiron, what do these dreams _mean_?"

"I'm afraid I don't always have all the answers, child. But you're strong and you're smart. I know that you'll figure this out."

"Yeah, then I'll die."

"You don't know that." He stared at me for a long few seconds. "Go. Spend some time with your friends. You have a big day tomorrow, and you might not see them for a while."

That I had to agree with. Not for a _really_ long time. At least when I die, I'll most likely get Elysium. I mean, I _did _save the world and everything. And Hades is my dad. That has to count for something.

I didn't say anything. I just nodded and quickly left.


	8. Chapter 8

Mattias  
********

When Chiron arrived, my stomach dropped. Tomorrow then. Mana and the others would be leaving tomorrow.

I hated that thought. My first quest had been just Mana and me. I was twelve. The two of us had saved each other countless times. Then Mana went on a solo quest and almost died.

Now she was going on yet another quest with a pair of rookies. At least her solo quest, all she had to do was worry about herself. Now she had to look out for two more people, and I knew that if either of them died, she would never forgive herself.

Not that I wanted the girls to die. The Poseidon kid, Glynn, was super fun to mess with. Mana had discovered that if you step on her shoes, she flips out. Guess what I spent the rest of the week doing? If she died, my fun would be gone.

I watched as the three girls and Chiron head to the big house. I felt like cursing, which I would do the second there weren't a bunch of people around. Mana had survived on her own for years, she was a councillor at camp. Heck, several times I made her come visit me during the year to make her help me with my math homework (for some reason, she always got annoyed by this). Clearly she wasn't an idiot (most of the time). So the fact that she was being so stupid was driving me insane.

"Mattias." I turned around and came face to face with Devin. I knew she felt the same way I did about the quest. I'd heard her telling Mana how stupid it was several times. Her sister was right beside her.

"What?"

"We need to talk. About the quest. Someone needs to do something."

I frowned. "And what, you want _me _to do something about it? You think Mana is going to listen just because I tell her not to go? Come on, Devin, we both know that when she has her mind set, she's too stubborn to back down. Especially if I'm the one telling her to. If I tell her not to go, that will just encourage her."

"No, idiot, that's not what I'm getting at. I know perfectly well that nothing we say is going to change her mind. The only one that even has a chance would be Chiron, but I doubt he will even try. He's more of a 'let heroes make their own choices' type of guy. I'm talking about sneaking out of camp."

For a second, I thought I was hearing things. "Wait, what?"

Lexis butted in, "Sneaking out of camp and going with them."

They had gone crazy, clearly. "Look, we're all against this, but we need to at least attempt to keep our sanity. Do you even hear yourselves?"

"We need to make sure that those other two don't get her killed!" Lexis exclaimed.

"You guys just want to go on a quest."

"Yeah, that's part of it," Devin admitted. "But she's our friend too. And this quest is clearly important. They can't fail. So if she has no good back-up, the chances of her quest failing is much greater than it could be."

As much as I knew it was wrong, I was slightly tempted. But then I shook my head. "Three people. That's the rule for quests. Unless the prophecy says otherwise, it's always three people. Sending more could just give them bad luck. I won't do that to them. Besides, JJ isn't that bad of a fighter. She can handle herself. We just have to trust them."

I didn't believe a word I was saying.

The second Mana exited the Big House, I jumped her. Literally. I jumped on her back, which caused her to fall over.

"Mattias, you jerk!" she shouted, shoving me to the side.

Feeling proud of myself, I smirked and stood up. I held out my hand to help her up. Luckily for me, she took it. That was the first sign that her mind was elsewhere. Normally she wouldn't trust me. I used that to pick her up (which she hates it when I do that) and fling her over my shoulder. It really wasn't hard. She's lighter than a bag of flour.

"PUT ME DOWN!' she yelled. I ignored her protests and carried her into the woods, her hanging over my shoulders. I'm fairly certain I developed several bruises on my back on the way there. She was pounded her fists into me, trying to get me to let go. But she wasn't struggling as hard as she normally would. Another sign.

Once we were deep enough to be out of ear shot, I let go and she sprang out of my arms. Which resulted in her landed ungracefully on the ground.

She glared at me. "I'll get you back for that. Remember the dog?"

Yes, I remembered that stupid undead dog. She used it to mess up my entire cabin on inspection day. "Remember the chicken?" That made her frown even more. She still has a scar on her forehead from that. It's a very faint scar but it's there nonetheless. For some reason, she wasn't very happy when I put a chicken on her head to wake her up as pay-back for the dog.

"What are we doing here, Matt? I doubt you carried me here for nothing."

I sat down beside her. "What did Rachel say? What was the prophecy?"

Her face went pale, and considering she has almost no colour in her skin anyway, it was slightly alarming. "It doesn't matter." She started to stand. Yep. That's what had been distracting her.

Before she fully got to her feet, I tackled her back to the ground. Then I sat on her so she couldn't get back up. "Tell me!"

"Get off, you fat boy! _Why_ are you so heavy?" she complained loudly.

"Because I'm a regular demigod, not a stick like you. Now tell me."

She clammed up and refused to tell me. But I did have one advantage. She's ADHD, which isn't uncommon for half-bloods. In fact, we both have it. But she had it much worse than I did. Within an hour, I was sure she would crack. We've been in situations like this before. She's the most stubborn demigod I know, but that doesn't change the fact that she simply _can not _sit still.

Of course I was right. I know her too well. Although she managed to last two hours, not one. By that point, she wasn't the only one getting fidgety. "Fine! I'll tell you! Just get off."

So I did, but I was ready to jump her again if she tried to make a break for it. "Ugh, I can't feel my legs. Or arms. Or…other places." She took a deep breath and started mumbling so I couldn't hear.

"Louder or else you're getting sat on again."

She gave me her best glare. I almost wanted to back down, but this wasn't my first time getting the death glare, so I held my ground and stared right back.

She suddenly became very interested in the ground, as she quietly recited the prophecy. By the time she got to the last line, I felt like committing murder.

"No."

"Hey, you asked."

"What kind of prophecy is that?" I yelled. "Oh by the way, one of you are going to die. No. That's just…NO!" I swung my fist and punched a tree.

I noticed Mana flinch, and I cursed in ancient Greek. Of course, her step-dad. '_I'm such an idiot.' _Quickly, I sat down beside her and gave her a quick hug.

"Crap, I'm sorry. I just…"

"Yeah, I know. Believe me, I'm not exactly happy about this myself."

"It might not be you."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better? I don't want anyone to die. But I have a bad feeling about this. A feeling like it might be me that the prophecy is talking about."

"You think you're going to die."

"We all die eventually."

"Mana quit being a pain for once in your life."

"Fine." She took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think I might."

I felt like hitting something again. In fact, I probably would have if my knuckle wasn't already split from punching the tree. Plus I already hugged her once because of scaring her and that's my maximum quota for one day/week/year. Neither one of us are exactly touchy feely and I do have a reputation of tormenting her. How can I keep that up if I'm being nice?

"Matt, calm down," she snapped. I whirled around to face her.

"How am I supposed to calm down knowing that my sister is going on a quest that is destined to have one member die? And oh yeah, the daughter of Hades is fairly sure it is going to be her."

She punched my gut. I probably needed that. I fell on my side and just laid there for a few seconds, taking a deep breaths in attempt to calm down.

"Knock it off, okay? Look, prophecies are never clear. They always have some kind of double meaning. And I was sure that you were about to die when we were twelve but yet here you are sitting next to me," she reminded me. I shuddered at the memory. That had been way to close.

I looked at her and pulled my best death glare. "You're not allowed to die. If you do, I'm ransacking your cabin."

She laughed and rolled her eyes. "Of course you are. Luckily for me, I'm a demigod that lives in Camp Half-Blood so I don't really own many valuables."

The dinner bell rang in the distance. "I better get back. My cabin is going to start a rebellion pretty soon, I keep making them all late for dinner."

"Of course. Typical. I'll meet you at the mess hall." She ran off in one direction and I took off in another.

Naturally my cabin was one of the last ones to dinner. Again. Oops.

After dinner though, that's when I formed a plan. As I led my cabin back to our room, I saw the Ares/Mars cabin walk past us.

"Viktor, lead them back. I need to go take care of something," I told one of my friends. He didn't look happy about it, but he nodded. I ran over to Devin.

"Tonight. Meet me at the edge of the woods just after curfew begins."

She stared at me. "Are you crazy? You want to go into the woods at _night_? We'll be killed, and that's if the harpies don't get us first. They eat campers that break curfew!"

Unfortunately, she's not lying. "Maybe I'm a little crazy. But if I am, it isn't because I'm breaking curfew. I've done that several times."

"Then why?"

"Because of the reason I'm meeting you. Bring your sister and anyone else that is coming."

I could see the truth dawn on her. She nodded. "Fine. We'll meet you. But if we get eaten, I'm not going to forgive you for that."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hehe. Sorry for the late update. The story totally slipped my mind. I have some bad news though. This is the last chapter that I've pre-written. Well, the next chapter is half done. So I might get it up on time. But after that, I'm a terrible updater. I'll most likely be posting once, maybe twice a month, depending on how much my friends pester me. So, sorry? Don't kill me? Please?**

* * *

Lexis  
********

My sister had to repeat herself twice when she told me what we were going to do. It was stupid beyond belief. Everyone knows the dangers of the woods and that's during the day. Young campers avoid them at all cost. Only the older kids enter there. But at night? Unheard of. Well, not _completely _unheard of. Some campers have told stories about going out there at night with another camper, but that is for an _entirely _different reason.

"So who's all coming?" I asked. We were sitting on my sister's bed waiting for curfew to start. We were going to call lights out, then head to the woods to meet Mattias.

"I talked to Aisha. She thinks we're insane, but she doesn't want to be left out either so she's coming. That makes you, me, Mattias and Aisha."

"And Mana doesn't know?"

"Obviously not. She'd still be yelling at us about how stupid we're being if she knew. No, as far as she knows, it's just the three of them going."

I nodded, then hopped off her bed. After waiting for almost ten more minutes, curfew began. "Alright campers! Lights out!"

Most people started complaining, but Devin shouted, "Our friend is going on a quest tomorrow and the two of us have to be up super early to see her off. So shut up and go to sleep." Several people still grumbled, but complied. Within five minutes, everyone was out.

"Let's go," I whispered. Devin nodded and we crept out of our cabin. I honestly couldn't believe that we'd never done this before. Maybe the thought of being eaten by harpies kept us from trying. But seriously, how had we never snuck out past curfew before? It did help that we were councillors this year. Sneaking out is much easier when you tell everyone when to go to sleep.

Mattias arrived at the edge of the woods a few minutes after us. Then it took another fifteen waiting for Aisha. Several times, we had to move around and duck behind trees or under logs because we were avoiding harpies. Finally, she appeared.

"Where have you been?" Devin snapped.

"Sorry. I'm not a councillor like you three. I don't call lights out, I have to wait for it. So I had to stay put until everyone was asleep."

"Okay, follow me," Mattias said. Devin looked miffed that she wasn't able to say anything more to Aisha, but for once she kept her mouth shut and followed.

I stayed right behind Mattias, followed by Devin and Aisha stayed at the back. Finally, we reached a boulder that we call Zeus's Head.

"Wait, are you saying we can get out through there?" Devin asked. Matt nodded.

"No way. No! Don't you know what that tunnel is a part of? It's a tunnel that leads into the labyrinth! Everyone knows that story. When people get lost in the labyrinth, they don't come out. I thought it was destroyed in the second titan war," I exclaimed.

Matt looked at me like I was dumb. "Of course I know the stories. Believe me, the tunnel through here is not part of the labyrinth. Mana and I have used it plenty of times. It used to be a part of the labyrinth, but like you said, it was destroyed. Years ago, some campers must have dug out the collapsed tunnel and created a new tunnel that leads outside of camp borders. Not magical, just a normal passage. But it's how we are going to get out of camp unnoticed."

"Wait, back up. You've snuck out of camp _before? _You _and _Mana?" Devin asked.

He looked slightly embarrassed. "Um, yeah. We discovered it the year we went on our quest. I'm fairly certain Chiron knows about it, but he pretends he doesn't. Mostly because if he admitted to knowing, he would have to get rid of it, and us using this passage to sneak out of camp was better than Mana's alternative."

"Which is…?" Way to just leave that hanging, Matt.

"She had a bad habit of shadow travelling. Just taking off without telling anyone. It scared everyone to death. So I forced her to make a deal with me; whenever she had to get away, we used the passage. And I came with her. She gets attacked too often in the outside world for her to be travelling alone."

"Oh yeah, I remember when she did that," Devin agreed.

Aisha spoke up. "So if we use this, we can get out and like, spy on the girls?" She looked thrilled at the thought.

"Sure. However you want to put it. The point is, we'll know when the rookies are about to get everyone on the quest killed, so we can pound them for that," Devin explained.

"You mean after we save their butts from said danger," I added.

"Of course."

"Are you two done?" Mattias snapped. "Come one, let's get back to our cabins. We can't help the girls if we are all harpy food."

"Wait," I quickly said. "We need food and supplies. How are we going to get that?

Mattias grinned. "We steal it of course."

* * *

What he meant by that was we needed to sneak into the Big House, go up to the attic (which thankfully is fairly clean) and grab a few backpacks that are already loaded with supplies in case of emergencies.

"There. Each of us have one. There should be enough room to pack some spare clothes, so please do. I don't want to be stuck with six smelly girls."

I did the math. "Wait, six? What do you mean six?"

He looked at me strange. "Um, I mean six girls?"

"There are only three of us," Aisha pointed out.

"We aren't actually travelling with the other three. We're just staying near them in case of monster attacks that they can't handle and need our help," Devin said.

For a moment, Mattias didn't reply. Then he started laughing at us. "Oh come on. You guys aren't seriously overlooking one giant detail here, are you?"

Us three looked at each other and shrugged. "Alright then, tell us, wise guy," Devin snapped.

Instead of answering, he simply pointed to Aisha. "Who is her godly parent?"

"Zeus. You know that," Aisha said. She looked confused.

"Exactly. Zeus. And if we are travelling near the other three girls, who is Mana and Glynn's godly parents?"

"Hades and Poseidon. What is your point?" Devin seemed annoyed now.

But it suddenly dawned on me what he was getting at. "There is no way we'll be able to hide ourselves. Zero chance."

He nodded. "It was bad enough when I went last time, and that was just with Mana. It will be three times worse with the other two. And the rest of us aren't exactly free passers either."

Aisha held up her hands. "What are you guys talking about?"

I explained, "There are three children of the big three that are going to be in about the same area, along with two of Ares kids and a Hermes kid. Every monster in the country is going to be able to sense us."

Devin groaned. "We're going to be like a beacon. I think even using a cell phone would be less of a flare."

Mattias nodded. "I hope you guys feel at your strongest. Because once we step out of the camp borders, we need to constantly be alert."

I think it is a shock to no one that I got very little sleep that night.


	10. Chapter 10

Mana  
*******

I didn't get a wink of sleep. Part of me wished to shadow travel somewhere so I could be occupied and not spend the rest of the night staring at the ceiling, but two things stopped me. One, I was leaving in the morning and couldn't afford being stuck somewhere on the other side of the country. Two, Mattias would kill me, followed by Chiron. So I stayed put.

When dawn finally came and I was able to leave my cabin without the fear of being harpy food, I walked down to the water and just sat on the beach with my feet in the water. I thought about going for a quick swim, but quickly banished the thought. I was taking one of Poseidon's kids on a dangerous quest where someone was guaranteed to die. I doubted that he would be very happy with me. Besides, he didn't like me in his territory on the best of days.

Travelling with Glynn worried me and not just because I'd learned over the past two weeks that she is a complete pain, and incapable of any form of fighting. Every time I step outside the camp boundaries, I get attacked. That's what happens when you're a child of one of the Big Three. This time, Glynn would be with me, and our combined auras would attract every monster in the state. Even having JJ would make things more dangerous. Normally, an Aphrodite kid isn't strong enough to have a powerful aura, but only a powerful demigod would be able to charm speak.

I wasn't all that surprised to see Devin outside. She's an early riser. It's annoying.

"Wow, look who managed to frag their butt out of bed before breakfast," she teased. The smile on her face didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Yeah, well, dangerous quests can do that to a person," I replied. She frowned. Glynn and her big mouth had blabbed to the others about the prophecy. Needless to say, the other girls weren't very happy with me. At least they didn't know about my gut feeling. Only Mattias and Chiron knew.

"Anyway, I'm just going to get some food then I'm waking the girls. We need to leave soon. I'd rather not have to sleep outside at night so I want to get moving as quickly as possible."

"Where are you guys going anyway?"

'Well, JJ was telling me that they were getting attacked mostly near the US/Canada border. We'll head that way."

"You're seriously going back to Canada? So you really think you're ready for that?"

"Devin, that was years ago. Besides, I shouldn't even end up near there again. We're going to be generally southern British Columbia. I was from Northern Alberta."

"The provinces are right beside each other. I don't like it."

"You don't like anything that has to do with this quest."

"No, I don't. And you know perfectly well why."

"What do you expect me to do? Call off the quest? Whatever this demigod is planning, its bad news. We have no idea what they are capable of. Besides, maybe the demigod just needs any three half-bloods. We can't just sit around and let unknowing half-bloods get snatched."

She frowned and grabbed a rock from the ground, skipping it across the water. "I hate it when you use logic."

I glanced at the sky. It was almost light out "I'll go wake the girls. Could you grab some breakfast for us?"

"What am I, your servant?" she grumbled. But she ran off anyway, which told me that she was convinced this was the last day she would see me alive. Why else would she actually listen to me and do what I asked?

Glynn's cabin was closest, she I went to the door and knocked loudly. "Glynn! Get up! We're heading out right away!'

From outside, I couldn't hear exactly what was said, but I could pick out Rapheal complaining about being woken up so early.

A few minutes later, Glynn emerged from the cabin. Her normally poofy hair was even messier than normal. She had an elastic around her wrist though, so she used that to tie her hair back in a ponytail, which was slightly less horrifying to look at.

"Took you long enough, Come on, we need to wake JJ."

Glynn snickered. "Good luck dragging her out of bed."

Surprisingly enough, the second I knocked on the door, JJ came outside. "How the heck are you awake already?" Glynn asked.

She shrugged. "Couldn't sleep. Duh."

"Come on, Devin, Lexis and Chiron should be waiting for us at the camp entrance."

"Not Mattias or Aisha?" JJ asked.

"Nah, I don't think Aisha could wake up this early. And I'm pretty sure Hades will start letting soul's return to the surface before Mattias would get up before the bell rings."

I was surprised, however, to Mattias with the other three at the entrance. Argon, our head of security, was also with them. Glynn nudged me. "Guess Hades will be letting some soul's go then."

I ignored her. It really isn't hard. "Matt? What are you doing here? I thought you'd be sleeping in. As always."

He pretended to loom innocent. "What? And not say goodbye to my sister as she embarks on a dangerous quest? What kind of brother do you think I am?"

"We woke him up," Lexis informed me.

"Makes sense."

JJ looked around. "No Aisha?"

Devin looked slightly guilty, but I wasn't sure why. "No. We, uh, let her sleep in. She probably wouldn't even wake up if we knocked on her door."

Chiron stepped forward. "Argon will drive you three to New York City. From there you can take a train to Montreal. Once you're in Canada…"

"No!" Glynn yelled. "No planes! Not happening. I choose life."

"He wasn't going to say fly, idiot. I'm a child of Hades, flying is a big no no for me too."

"Yes. I was going to say that once you're in Canada, you should be able to find some sort of ride across the country. Where exactly did you say you were heading?"

"One of the monsters I talked to mentioned Vancouver, so we're going to head there," JJ explained.

"That on the other side of the country," Devin groaned. I didn't see what her problem was, not like she was the one crossing Canada.

"Yes it is. I fear all three of you will have a hard journey ahead of you."

"Great. Thanks a lot," Glynn grumbled.

Lexis stepped forward and gave both girls a hug (even Glynn, oddly enough). I gave Mattias a tight hug. I couldn't shake the feeling that this would be the last time I would see him, Chiron, or the twins.

Chiron gave me a sad look. "Remember, prophecies often have more than one meaning."

"Yeah, I know. I'll try to come back, I promise. But if it is between me and the girls, I'll pick them every time. You know that." I glanced at the two. "Well, maybe not if it's Glynn."

Lexis gave me a hug like the other two, and Devin lightly punched me in the shoulder. "You're coming back alive, you hear me? We know where the entrance to the Underworld is, don't think we won't hunt you down if you die."

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah." Maybe if this was a movie, we'd say a bunch of sappy crap about how important our friendship was and how we'll always remember each other and all that other chick-flick stuff. Instead, I just gave them a smile that looked as genuine as I could make it, and followed Argon out of the camp borders.

The ride to New York was long, but that was nothing compared to the waiting for a train. We sat at the station, bored out of our minds, for what seemed like hours. Of course, that could just be my ADHD mind going crazy. It didn't help the Glynn would not shut up the entire time.

Finally, I'd had enough. "Will you _shut up _already! Did you hit your head this morning?"

She glared at me. "I did not!"

"Could have fooled me. You're just normally this stupid then."

"Yeah, well, uh…" she looked at my face and noticed the deep circles under my eyes. "I bet I got more sleep than you did!"

JJ snorted. She slapped one hand over her mouth and the other was wrapped around her waist. Her attempts at not laughing loudly were failing badly.

As for me, my glare disappeared. I stared at her incredulously. "Seriously? You call that a comeback?" I asked.

"Well, did I?"

"Not the point!"

"See, I win."

"I'm pretty sure that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard."

"It was genius and you know it."

"Oh my god, Glynn!" JJ laughed. She was dying slightly beside me.

"You good?" I asked.

"Give me a minute."

Glynn gave me a proud smirk. Before either of us could say anything else, the train finally arrived.

JJ, who had finally calmed down, leaped to her feet. "It's about time. Come on, let's see if what people say about New York trains is true."


	11. Chapter 11

Devin  
********

I waved to JJ, Glynn and Mana as they left for New York. For the sake of looking like I wasn't going with them, I did my best to look sad and angry. It wasn't hard to do. The chances of them dying were great, and I was still mad at the trio for being idiots.

As soon as they had vanished from sight, I started to move, but froze when someone grabbed my arm. I glanced over to see Lexis shake her head slightly. I pulled my arm from her grasp but didn't start leaving yet.

Chiron glanced in our direction. "You three can go back to your cabins and get some more sleep if you like."

"Actually, I don't think I'd be able to get any more sleep. I'm going to go hunt some stuff in the woods. Care to join me?" I asked the other two. They both nodded and looked back at Chiron to make sure he didn't protest. He just gave us a sad nod and we all went to grab our weapons and supplies from our cabins.

Lexis was taking too long for my liking, so instead of waiting for her, I walked to Zeus's cabin and banged on the door. A sleepy yet grouchy looking boy answered.

"What in Zeus's name are you doing up this early in the morning?" he complained.

"I need to talk to Aisha." He looked like he was going to protest so I glared at him until he shrank back and pulled Aisha out of bed.

She appeared at the door, her hair still messy and he eyes still drooping with sleep. "What's up?" she asked.

"Dude, they just left! We need to follow now or else we'll lose track of them."

"Oh. OH! Oh yeah, I forgot! Sorry, I'm coming." She raced inside and came back out with a backpack and a dagger strapped to her waist. "I'm ready."

We ran towards the woods. Mattias and Lexis were waiting for us. Lex had her sword strapped to her side while Mattias had his strung behind his back. "Lead the way," I told him.

It only took a few minutes to get to the tunnel, but for me, it seemed as if time was moving really slow. I couldn't believe we were doing this. I hadn't been outside the camp boundaries since I was eleven. The thought of being outside our safe haven and into the real world with real monsters was a thrill to me. I couldn't wait to start killing things.

"Alright," Mattias said when we reached the tunnel. "No one should miss us for hopefully ten hours. During the day, nobody should care where we are but by suppertime, when we aren't there they will notice. Still, we need to be quick. No screwing up or this won't work."

What a lovely motivational speech. '_Don't screw up.'_

I gave him a mock bow and gestured for him to go first. I followed right behind him and heard Aisha breathing right behind me. Lex must have taken the rear.

When we had talked about the tunnel, I'd thought he meant it lead directly out of camp. Apparently I was mistaken because we were in that stupid tunnel for over an hour. It wasn't until I started complaining that Mattias explained to us where the tunnel lead. We were walking all the way to New York. Our tunnel popped out in one of the tunnels by the train station. That was an added bonus, seeing as how that's where the three girls would have headed. Even still, spending so much time underground was not exactly what I had in mind for my first time outside.

Then finally, _finally, _we saw a light up ahead. I stepped out only to realize that we were still underground, just now it was less confining. We were in one of the tunnels that the trains went through. The station must be close.

I saw Aisha come behind me. She looked really pale, and it dawned on me that I hadn't heard her speak a single word since we started walking. _'Of course, she's a child of Zeus. Underground and she must not get along very well.' _I realized.

"Where now, Einstein?" I asked. Even though I understood how serious this whole situation was, I was fairly certain I wasn't feeling as scared as I should have. For one thing, the fact that Mattias was being normal was alarming. I was also too excited to really be afraid.

"Follow me, thing 1 and thing 2." He glanced at Aisha. "Just follow me, okay?" His tone was far gentler to her than it was to my sister and me. Lexis seemed to notice as well.

"Why are you way nicer to her?" Lex complained.

Mattias didn't bother answering. Instead he just started walking down one of the tunnels.

"You should have seen the first time Mana and I took the tunnel and ended up here. I was so confused. Luckily tunnels and Hades kids get along really well, so we didn't get lost."

"I'm just surprised you two lasted that long just walking with nothing really to do," I noted. The pair of them were some of the most hyper people I knew, although Mana tended to hide that fact when she was around people.

He shrugged. "Like I said, tunnels and Mana get along. It never took that long for us to reach here. Guess some sort of Hades magic."

"Wish we had that now," Aisha mumbled. "My feet hurt. We've been walking for hours."

The rest of the walk was mostly in silence. It took about fifteen minutes for us to reach the subway, and from there we went across town to a train above ground. That train would take us to Montreal.

"How exactly are we supposed to pay for this?" Lexis demanded.

Mattias shrugged. "I've got lots of money. Some from our quest packs, some from home, and lots that I've stolen. Duh. I pickpocketed about thirteen people on our way here.

"Awesome!" I grinned. Lex was less impressed, but it wasn't as if she could go return all the wallets that Mattias grabbed.

The train ride itself was awful. It was crowded and the place smelled. Mattias, Lexis and Aisha all managed to fall asleep no problem but I for one couldn't even shut my eyes for more than five seconds. It was a good thing that I stayed awake too, or else I would have missed the flipped train with the claw marks beside the track.

Everyone on the train that was awake started murmuring to themselves and each other. I nudged the others awake. "Look!"

Mattias groaned when he saw it. "That's recent. It must be. How much you want to bet that's the track that JJ, Mana and Glynn were riding?"

"I don't want to waste any of my drachmas," Aisha said.

"What kind of claw marks are those?" Mattias asked. He squinted as if to get a better look."

"Gryphon would be my best guess," Lex said. Our train passed the other one. "Although I can't be sure. They must have gotten away though. But they'll be on foot."

"Not necessarily." Mattias looked deep in thought.

"Care to share with the rest of the class?" I snapped.

He shrugged. "Most likely they shadow travelled. I mean, what other choice would they really have? Walking out in the open would be suicide for them. And they would be putting every bystander at risk."

"Doesn't shadow travelling wear Mana out?" Lex asked. "I mean, she normally gets tired just travelling by herself. And Montreal is a pretty big jump from here."

"This could work in our favour. If they are shadow travelling there, they will have to rest for a few hours every time. Which means we have a chance of catching up."

**A/N: I'm really sorry this took so long. And I kind of doubt my upload time will get much faster. This chapter was actually kind of hard for me to post because all the characters that have povs in this story are based off of one of my friends, and I'm actually having some problems with the guy who Mattias is based off of which really sucks since he's been like a brother to me since I was 3. Anyway, hopefully the next chapter won't take so long.**


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